Tag Archives: errands

I’m Tired

Some days I wish there I had a few clones lying around to help share some of the load. Granted, things have gotten easier now that my daughter is a little older, but teenagers still need supervision. In some cases teenagers actually need more supervision. They need to know that someone is involved in their lives and cares about what is going on. This one thing can help prevent some of the problems parents of teenagers encounter. How can any one person do it all? I’m not Super Woman and I’ve never claimed to be, something has to give. There … Continue reading →

Are You the Family Courier?

In my mind, there is a difference between running errands and being a courier. After all, often errands include necessary household tasks like buying groceries and getting the car serviced. Being the courier usually involves hauling people or things back and forth. It always feels to me like that courier-by-default job can suck up the most amount of time! As a single parent, we often find that all of the jobs and titles eventually fall to us. We are the one adult in the family so we are the one who manages all of the tasks. I do not think … Continue reading →

Optimizing Our Errands 2

This is part 2 of a 2-part series. If you missed the first article earlier today, click here: Optimizing Our Errands. After lunch, we visited the library to return books and stock up on enough reading and listening material to last us six weeks (the maximum amount of time we can hold items). I estimate that getting extra books and CDs shaved off at least one extra library trip. I decided not to take out any DVDs, since these are due in three days time and would require an extra trip back to the library. We have plenty of movies … Continue reading →

Optimizing Our Errands

So yesterday, I decided to take a little bit of my own advice and combine our errands into one day. This way, we would spend less money on gas, since we could map out an efficient route that covers each stops. This lessens the extra back and forth trips to and from the house. We would also spend less gas by limiting how often we make trips to any given place. If we designate one weekend a month, for example, to errands, then we know that we need to take full advantage of the trip, stocking up at the grocery … Continue reading →

How Much Can You Squeeze in a Lunch Hour?

Over the years, I have read all sorts of parenting and time management articles about how parents can run errands, get in their daily exercise, take a nap, pump breast milk, etc.—all during that brief 60-minute break during the work day. From a single parent’s perspective, I’m wondering just how much we can squeeze in during a lunch hour? I confess, I have tried it all—I’ve done my grocery shopping on the lunch hour, driven home to bake cookies for a kid party, headed across town to volunteer at the school, tried to get in a spirited walk or some … Continue reading →

Single Parents and Chores and Errands–On the Weekend or During the Week?

Time management is one of those ongoing and heated topics of conversation amongst single parents–how do we get everything done and still have time to pay loving attention to our selves and our kids? One of the issues that comes up for single parents is how to manage household chores and errands like grocery shopping–do you save it up and do it on the weekend? Or do you try to squeeze them in during the week so you can spend weekends with your family? I confess that I try to get as much as possible done during the week so … Continue reading →

Fun With Gourmet Foods

A few days ago, while waiting for the twins to be done with “Farm Camp”, my oldest and I killed a couple of hours by running errands. Now running errands doesn’t sound a bit fun, particularly not on a beautiful summer day. So to make it more fun, we didn’t just pick up what we needed and run as we usually do. We lingered. And we stopped in stores that we never have time to go in. Our favorite find was a gourmet food store. We were thrilled to see some of the yummy chocolates and candy we ate in … Continue reading →

Running Errands on Work Time

Working from a home-based business means that we can take full advantage of multi-tasking…or not—depending on our temperament and preferred mode of working. Folks who are really great multi-taskers can often do family, personal and work errands all at the same time and take advantage of excellent time management skills. I am someone who can lose a whole day to errands and then find myself playing catch-up in my typically “off work” time. What I do know is that momentum is important to me and how I work—if I have to leave my desk and work focus to run errands … Continue reading →